Labor Day in the Rain

The unpredictable Labor Day weather made for an interesting day today.  The plan had been to continue work on the main house dormer, but the bouts of rain hindered that progress.  Instead, the guys worked on continuing to stabilize the barn.  They replaced a key beam that had been rotted by water.  You can kind of see it in the picture below.

The new beam is the one right by Roger's head.

Eric and Pete worked on digging out the debris that fell.

Rocky taught Eric how to drive the backhoe.

Go...Eric...Go!

Roger worked on sawing off the rotted portions of other beams.

Meanwhile, Becca and I went under the bridge in the creek to go fishing with Anne and Pete.  We had so much fun!  We waded through the water with our awesome multi-colored rain boots and I even caught a fish!  This is coming from the girl who had her fishing license 3 years in a row and never had any luck catching anything.  We baited the hook with slugs (surprisingly, worms were not easily found with all of the rain?) and we caught a bunch of little fish.  Anne taught me how to cast the fishing rod and before you knew it I had caught a fish!  Wahoo!  We couldn't stop laughing the whole time.  Here are some pictures of that fishing adventure.

Pete was the official slug collector.

I don't think looking at this bridge will ever get old...it still takes my breath away!  

2 arches!  It's so GORGEOUS!

Anne's fish...she is so proud that she can do this "stringy thing" to hold onto them the way that Pappy taught her.

Here I go! Thanks Anne!

Ohhh yes!  It was an ENORMOUS fish!  

Hmm....this part takes some getting used to.

We had a great picnic today too.  We bbq'd in the rain...thank goodness for a big barn.  Although, I met a bat for the first time.  I think we disturbed it...and it for sure disturbed me!  Apparently, they are very good to have around because they eat the mosquitoes.  Although I am going to definitely look into bat houses for them so they have their ample space away from me in nature :)  We had a cozy tented picnic while the guys took a break from working in the rain.  It was definitely a memorable Labor Day!  Thanks to ALL!!!